Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia signed a petition calling to ban abortions. He signed a petition after a divine service in Archangel Michael Church in the village of Belousovo in New Moscow at the meeting with the participants in all-Russian public movement For Life and The Orthodox Volunteers movement, website of the Russian Church reports.
"We, the citizens of the Russian Federation, are in favor of the termination of the existing practice of abortion in our country which is the legal killing of children before birth and require making changes in the legal system to recognize that a conceived child has a status of human being, whose life, health and well-being should be protected by law," the appeal reads as its text was agreed with the Patriarchal Commission for the Family, Maternity and Childhood Protection.
Its authors also stand for banning surgical and medical abortions, contraceptives with abortive effects, assisted reproductive technologies, "an integral component of which is humiliation of human dignity and murder of children in the initial stages of embryonic development.”
They suggest to provide financial assistance from the state budget to pregnant women and families with children in the amount not less than the subsistence minimum.
Patriarch Kirill thanked the participants for their work and gave them his blessing.